How the MSM bungled Israel’s election

That didn’t happen. The ultra-right lost big time, while the centrists gained significant ground—so much so that Bibi now has the option of forming a coalition government without the ultra-Orthodox Haredim. While Bibi can certainly form a traditional right-wing government, there’s a strong possibility for a broad centrist government comprised of Likud, center-left Yesh Atid, and center-left Hatnua.

How did the MSM get this so wrong? TAI editor Adam Garfinkle noted that the media is prone to a simple psychological fallacy: “We see what we expect to see, and we disattend (pardon the jargon) what does not fit with our framing of the situation. . . . If we’re sure that our range of expectations excludes a particular outcome, we will not see evidence of it until too late.”

That’s more or less the story of the MSM’s relationship with Israel. Many journalists in the West care about the peace process above all else. Thus, they are often concerned with Israel only insofar as it relates to the Palestinian issue, and only see Israeli society through the lens of the two-state solution, as Via Meadia alum Yair Rosenberg pointed out in Tablet last month.